Running the Marathon for the fifth time, Daily News editor knows race is permanently changed

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By Tim DumasDaily News staff

Wicked Local

By Tim DumasDaily News staff

Posted Apr. 12, 2014 at 10:33 PM

By Tim DumasDaily News staff

Posted Apr. 12, 2014 at 10:33 PM

» Social News

It wasn’t a hard decision to come back this year.

It’s Boston. With a bonus: larger, louder crowds. No further explanation needed.

Patriotism is sure to overflow on this Patriots' Day. It will be a day like no other, only because the world is different this year.

Police presence is sure to be visible in all directions. Security will never be tighter. Oh, and that backpack? Leave it at home.

I didn’t have to worry about such a scenario leading up to last year’s Marathon, back when the phrases “lockdown” and “shelter-in-place” were more applicable to snowstorms.

Runners from all corners of the globe have eyed this year as the race to be part of. I wonder if spectators feel the same way. That might not be such an easy decision if, say, you were on Boylston Street just over a year ago and had to pick shrapnel out of your cheek. Or if your ears continue to ring. Or if you’re still adjusting to new legs.

If you’re hesitant, and who could blame you, please try and make it. We need you. I need you. I’m running again.

Most of the injured – and all three fatalities - in last year’s tragedy were spectators. And where would a race like this be without the hundreds of thousands who line its route?

And not just for race day. You are the ones who watch the kids while we’re out training early on a Sunday morning. The ones who stifle a sigh when we say we’re too tired to help pull weeds. The ones who will ultimately spend hours shuttling into Boston on crowded public transit, then wait considerably more time only to watch us for the two seconds it takes to run by.

Most runners put in months of training, just to toe the starting line, with no guarantee of finishing. Crossing the coveted Boylston Street stripe was a sensation nearly 5,000 runners weren’t allowed to enjoy last April.

Yes, many ran alternative marathons later in the spring or ran the last few miles into Boston as a symbolic gesture. But as any runner knows, it’s not the same.

This year's race is about more than a finishing time.

Just knowing there are dozens with new prosthetic legs was more than enough to get me out the door in January (and February, and …) when it was 5 degrees. The lives lost are also not far from my focus.

Of all the images from last April, the one I can’t shake – the one that still moistens my eyes - is of Martin Richard. The picture of him taken at a Bruins game just four days before the Marathon shows the 8-year-old displaying a gap-toothed grin under sparkling brown eyes. He couldn’t have looked more excited and innocent.

Page 2 of 2 - The following Monday he was gone, along with his sister’s leg.

With so much added security, together with new rules and outright bans of items essential to a marathoner’s desire to endure, it seems as though our beloved Boston may have lost its own innocence.

That doesn’t mean the day won’t be special. It will be a day like no other. Only because this race has changed forever.